Fasteners are used in a variety of applications. For example, some fasteners, such as thumb screws, are used to lock items down, or in place, or to secure items, and allow the fasteners to be easily removed without the need for hand tools to tighten or loosen the fastener. One problem with such fasteners, however, is that they are often prone to loosening do to external forces applied against them, such as vibration and other forms of interference. For example, thumb screws are used to secure scope mounts to some fire arms. Often times these thumb screws loosen due to the vibration the screws experience during operation of the fire arm. Eventually the screws may loosen or give way enough to cause the scope to move out of alignment and affect the accuracy of the scope and/or the fire arm operator's accuracy. Other problems associate with such fasteners relate to the methods associated with manufacturing and/or assembling these items and the methods for fastening associated with such items.
Prior attempts have been made to secure components to firearms using screws in combination with cam levers, detents and locking pins but all of these still have disadvantages. Original designs used simple thumb screws that easily loosened and required frequent hand tightening in order to remain secure in use. In later designs, as in U.S. Pat. No. 7,694,450, an eccentric cam is used to align or adjust the fit of the optical mount to the side of a M14 rifle receiver but a mechanical fastener ultimately holds the mount to the M14s receiver. Thus, with this design tools are still required to tighten the mechanical fastener, such as wrenches or other means of adding torque, and the fastener itself remains susceptible to loosening due to the vibration that the fastener is exposed to during the operation of the firearm. In other designs, as in U.S. Pat. No. 7,272,904, a throw lever connected to a tapered eccentric cam is used that engages the underside of a Weaver or Picatinny rail. This design is limited to only rail mounting systems and requires tools to adjust the ultimate holding force of the cam. Furthermore, it appears to also be susceptible to vibration and loosening as evident by the fact the same applicant has had to add a locking pin to the lever to prevent the lever from coming loose as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,272,904.
In other applications, fasteners are used to connect two or more work piece members together in such a way that they can be readily secured or tightened and, just as readily, released. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,142, issued Jan. 9, 1979 to Dzus, illustrates a latch for releasably holding two members together. The latch includes a stud adapted to be mounted in fixed position on one of the members and a receptacle adapted to be mounted in fixed position on the other of the members and located to engage with the stud when the members are brought together. A simple turn of the member with the stud can rotate the stud into engagement with the receptacle to secure or tighten the latch to secure the two work piece members together. An opposite turn of the member with the stud can rotate the stud out of engagement with the receptacle so that the member with the stud and the receptacle (and their respective work piece members) are freely moveable with respect to one another. Unfortunately, such fasteners are typically limited in the amount of turning they can require to secure or release the fastener, require tools to operate the fastener components and/or are susceptible to vibration and loosening in certain applications.
In still other applications, fasteners are used to obstruct or plug openings. For example, fasteners such as plugs are often used to releasably block bilge well openings on boats and fluid drains, such as oil drains on vehicles and machinery. Such fasteners typically require tools to operate and/or are susceptible to vibration and loosening in certain applications. Like all the above-mentioned embodiments, such fasteners also do not offer ways in which the fastener can be adjusted or altered without tools in order to accommodate particular users (e.g., left handers, right handers, those with injuries or limitations, etc.) and/or accommodate the particular application the fastener is used in (e.g., particulars with respect to the surrounding environment, such as if it is a tight working space or if obstructions are present, etc.). Conventional fasteners also do not make it easy to determine when a fastener has been secured to a work piece a sufficient amount and fail to allow a user to use different materials for different components of the fastener.
Accordingly, it has been determined that a need exists for an improved fastener and methods relating to same which overcome the aforementioned limitations and which further provide capabilities, features and functions, not available in current fasteners and methods relating to same.